Countries world over have reported more than 2 million Covid-19 cases in the last one week, making it the shortest time ever for such an exponential increase in the number of Covid-19 cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

Presenting a weekly analysis of the global Covid-19 situation, the WHO said that for the second consecutive week, the European region accounted for the biggest proportion of new cases. Europe has recorded more than 1.3 million Covid-19 cases which is about 46 per cent of the worldwide total, the Associated Press said in a report.

According to the report, the WHO said deaths due to Covid-19 were also on the rise in Europe, with about a 35 per cent spike since the previous week.

"Although the number of deaths is gradually increasing, the proportion of deaths to cases remains relatively low, compared to the early phase of the pandemic in the spring," the WHO was quoted as saying.

Apart from this, the WHO said hospitalisations of Covid-19 cases and ICU occupancy has increased in 21 countries across Europe.

The WHO said it estimates that about 18 per cent of Covid-19 cases were hospitalised, with nearly 7 per cent requiring ICU support or breathing machines.

Globally, WHO said the countries reporting the highest numbers of cases remain unchanged as for the past three weeks: India, the US, France, Brazil, and the UK each week per 100,000 people.

In India, for the past two weeks, there has been a visible decline in the daily number of new Covid-19 cases and Covid-related deaths. The daily figures have come down from a high of over 97,000 in September to around 40-50,000 at present.

Story Source - www.indiatoday.in